The Senate Celebrates Ten Years of Visual Effects

The Senate Visual Effects, a boutique London-based studio, has announced expansion plans coinciding with its tenth anniversary in the entertainment industry.

Press Release from The Senate

London, UK – The Senate Visual Effects, a boutique London-based studio, has announced expansion plans coinciding with its tenth anniversary in the entertainment industry. The facility, which began as an independent group of artists working on the award-winning series “Band of Brothers,” has transformed into a well-established company best known for creating digital environments that enhance or completely stand in for unattainable film and broadcast locations. To mark The Senate’s ten successful years, the company is adding a Soho studio, which will add efficiency and convenience for clients who previously worked directly at The Senate’s Twickenham Studios location.

Sarah Hemsley, CEO of The Senate, says, “What started out as a temporary group of artists working together on a single project has evolved into a thriving and deeply committed staff of digital experts who constantly amaze me.”

Over the past decade, The Senate has worked with top directors including Michael Apted, Ron Howard, Christopher Nolan, Guillermo del Toro, Paul Greengrass, Roland Emmerich, Richard Loncraine, Kenneth Branagh, Matthew Vaughn, Julian Fellowes and Richard Attenborough.

The Senate’s creative team is lead by visual effects supervisors Richard Higham and Anton Yri, and visual effects producer Paula Pope. Higham’s credits with The Senate, which he joined in 2004, include “Angels & Demons,” “Inkheart,” “Hellboy II: The Golden Army,” “10,000 BC,” “Stardust,”” The Bourne Ultimatum,” “28 Weeks Later” and “The Da Vinci Code.” While at The Senate, Yri, who came on board in 2005, has worked on “Kick-Ass,” “Fast & Furious,” “Frost/Nixon,” “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,” “The Bourne Ultimatum,” “1408” and “Batman Begins.” Higham and Yri are currently working on “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.” As The Senate’s senior visual effects producer since 2005, Pope has overseen the studio’s work on most of its recent film and television work. Prior to joining The Senate, Pope was the digital producer on the award-winning HBO series, “Rome.”

The Senate’s work in “The Da Vinci Code” and “Angels & Demons” was included in both films’ nominations for the Visual Effects Society VES Awards in the Best Supporting Visual Effects category. They are currently in production on “The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader” and “Priest.” Recently completed feature work includes “Shanghai.” Other film credits include “From Time to Time,” “My One and Only,” “The Hessen Affair,” “Sleuth,” ”Doomsday” and “Closing the Ring.” In addition to “Band of Brothers,” The Senate’s digital environments were key to the success of HBO’s highly-lauded series ”Rome” and “Rome II.” Other broadcast credits include ”The Life and Death of Peter Sellers” and several episodes of “Lost.”